The nutraceutical food or parts of food may provide medical health benefits including the prevention and or treatment of diseases. Nutraceuticals, are foods or bioactive ingredients in foods that protect or promote health whether delivered in raw agricultural commodities, processed foods, dietary supplements, extracts, beverages or other products and occurs at the intersection of food and pharmaceutical industries. The development of next generation nutraceutical “super foods” or products consist value-addition in the traditional natural diets. Their ingredients have tremendous impact on the health care system and may provide medical health benefits including the prevention and or treatment of diseases. Nutraceuticals have potential to be used as food supplement, preventive medicine and the growing evidence points in the direction that certain foods fight and or prevent against diseases.
The word Nutraceuticals combine ‘nutrition’ and ‘pharmaceuticals’ to mean that they can be used as preventive drugs or food supplements. The entire concept is based on the disease preventing/treating phytonutrients present in foodstuffs of the diet in combating diseases e.g. phytosterols compete with dietary cholesterol for uptake in intestine thereby blocking cholesterol absorption into the body and can also prevent the development of tumor in breast and prostate glands. Phenols a large group of phytonutrients, have profound importance in preventive medicine. Phytochemicals can enhance the efficacy of vitamin C, can also act against allergies, ulcers, tumors, platelet aggregation, controlling hypertension and reduce the risk of estrogen induced cancer.
The food plays significant role in the general health of diabetics, heart, nerves and aged. The right foods do have the power to heal, keeping good health of body functions, ageing, rejuvenating, immuno-modulating and prevention against diseases, just as the wrong foods can cause sickness, rapid ageing and premature death.